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Dispatchers: Facebook outage is not a 911 emergency

Several people dialed 911 when the social media network went offline for about an hour worldwide due to an internal glitch

SAN FRANCISCO — Dispatchers who received several 911 calls after Facebook and Instagram went down reminded the public that a social media outage is not a life-threatening emergency.

“Our lines are [sic] dedicated to handle life-and-death calls, and even though Facebook is important to a lot of people, it’s not a matter of life and death when it stops working,” a dispatcher told CBS.

The outage, caused by an internal glitch, lasted about an hour and effected locations in the United States, Asia, Australia and the U.K.

Five concerned residents in the East Bay called 911 to ask when the service would be back online.

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